FAQs
Who can apply to the Trust?
We fund properly constituted, not-for-profit third sector
organisations. These are usually registered charities but also
including Community Interest Companies; Industrial & Provident
Societies; community amateur sports clubs; and not-for-profit
companies (sometimes referred to as social enterprises). We can
only fund charitable activity.
Our grants must benefit people who live in Greater London. We
only fund organisations; we do not fund individuals. Further
details of eligibility and exclusions can be found in our
programme guidelines.
What type of grants do you give?
We give grants for capital or for revenue costs, although not
usually both at the same time. The exception to this is the
Accessible Buildings priority of our
Accessible London programme.
Will you fund core costs?
Yes. We recognise that core costs are incurred in the delivery of good services and are willing to consider funding these costs, provided the work supported meets our priorities and you can demonstrate the costs cannot be found from elsewhere.
What is your approach to full cost recovery?
We are sympathetic to full cost recovery where proper costing
exercises have been done and where costs requested are not already
funded from other sources. It is important that an organisation
knows the true full cost of any piece of work it is looking to
undertake. However, all requests are dealt with on a case by case
basis, taking account of your available resources and other funding
possibilities.
How much can we ask for?
There is no minimum or maximum revenue grant. However, it is not
our policy to award large grants to small organisations. The Trust
will not be an organisation's largest single revenue funder. For
example, if your largest confirmed grant, contract or other
donation is for £25,000 per annum, that would be the most that we
could consider awarding you.
Grants to very large charities are unlikely to exceed more than
50% of the total cost of the project, whilst grants for large
capital projects will not usually exceed £50,000. Please contact us
if you would like further advice on this.
Does the Trust require match funding?
No, but we do look at what other funders are already involved or
have been approached. We are also interested in developing funding
partnerships, especially on larger projects.
How do we apply?
You must either download and complete the current application
form
here or use the online application system
here. All previous versions of the form are invalid and any
application submitted on an old form will be returned without being
considered.
Do you have deadlines for receipt of applications?
The Grants Committee meet regularly and applications are
accepted throughout the year for all of our current funding
programmes. It usually takes about 4 months from receiving your
complete application until a final decision is reached and you
should take account of this when planning your project.
How many grants can an organisation have at any one time?
A single organisation may usually only hold one grant at a time.
The exceptions are:
- where an organisation which does not have the environment as a
main focus seeks funding for an environmental project in addition
to funds for work addressing another of the Trust’s programme
areas;
- where a support organisation (such as a council for voluntary
service) is ‘housing’ a project which is in the process of becoming
a separate charity;
- where a large national or regional charity with branches is
running discrete activities in different parts of London (see 10
below);
- where a charity is the lead applicant of a Consortium bid (see
24 below);
- where the Trust commissions an organisation to undertake a
piece of work as a Strategic Initiative.
Please contact us for further advice if you think that one of
these circumstances might apply to you.
What about charities with branches?
If you are a branch, say, of Age UK, with your own charity
number, constitution and set of trustees, you are free to apply in
your own right at any time. Some larger charities with branches
running discrete activities in different parts of London can hold
up to three grants at a time. This will be looked at on a case by
case basis so you are advised to speak to us if you think this
might apply to your organisation. In such cases the national or
regional office of the applicant organisation should co-ordinate
applications. Therefore, you should always consult your head office
before making an application as part of a large charity.
Do you ever fund national charities?
Yes, provided the work is for a discrete London project.
Organisations based outside London also need to demonstrate that
they have the necessary skills and experience to work in
London.
Do you fund churches, mosques or other faith groups?
We can fund any such groups, but not for work in connection with
the promotion of religion. We can support work that benefits the
wider community, for example, making a church hall accessible for
disabled people.
We would expect all faith-based organisations to conform to the
Charity Commission's registration requirements, as amended by the
Charities Act 2006 (in respect of the registration of excepted
charities).
You have funded our organisation already. Can we come back for
another grant for the same purpose?
If the original grant was for three years, you may not re-apply
to the Trust for the same purpose until three years after the final
satisfactory monitoring report on the previous grant was
received.
However, if the original grant was for less than three years and
the work is going well, you can apply for the remainder of the
three year period provided the work continues to meet the Trust's
priorities as set out in our current
programme guidelines. You will need to submit a fresh, complete
application and there is, of course, no guarantee that the
application will be successful. Remember, it takes four months for
us to get you a decision, so if you want a continuation grant
without a gap, get your timing right and contact the office for
advice, as we may be able to accept an application before the
existing grant expires.
Work that is strategically important for London, and which has
already been funded for three years, may occasionally be re-funded
for a further two years, again provided the work continues to meet
the Trust's current priorities. You should, however, ring and seek
advice before applying in these circumstances..
We have received funding from you for three years already. When
can we re-apply?
At the end of your revenue grant you may apply for a
different purpose one year after
we receive a satisfactory monitoring report for the final year of
the original grant.
You may re-apply to the Trust for the same
purpose three years after a satisfactory
monitoring report on the previous grant was received (unless the
work is strategically important to London - see 13 above).
We received capital funding from you. When can we re-apply?
In the case of capital grants, a year must have elapsed since
the final payment of the grant and a satisfactory monitoring report
must also have been submitted a year after the payment of the
grant.
If you received a grant for an Access Audit, you may re-apply at
any time for funding towards any associated capital work, once the
audit is complete.
We have been rejected - when can we re-apply?
We give careful consideration to all applications.
Unfortunately, demands for funding always exceed funds available.
This means some good applications, whilst meeting our criteria,
still have to be rejected.
You can re-apply one year from the date that the Trust received
your original complete application. You are free to contact the
Trust to ask for feedback on your unsuccessful application before
re-applying.
Are grants awarded 'all or nothing'?
No. The level of grant awarded is often different from that
requested. A Grants Officer will usually talk to you about this in
an assessment meeting, so it is unlikely to come as a surprise.
This can be for a number of reasons (beside our own budget
constraints). You may have over-budgeted; you may have added things
which are not really part of the same project; you may have asked
for more than is reasonable in relation to our usual funding
patterns; or we may take the view that you could find some of the
costs from another source.
We want to apply for £25,000 or more. What further information
do you require as a fuller proposal?
We require a fuller proposal to assess the strength of your
application. There is no set format for this. However, it should
include more details of what is proposed e.g. background, targets,
building plans (where appropriate), workplans, how the project will
operate, how you will measure its success and how it fits into your
organisation's overall objectives. Please refer to the guidance
notes attached to the application form for more details of the
information we require.
However, you need to bear in mind that only the application form
is seen by the Grants Committee and so it needs to contain enough
information for your application to be understood.
I do not know how to fill in the financial information. What
should I do?
Get help from someone who can because it is very important as we
use this information to help us assess the financial strength of
your organisation. Also, if you as an organisation cannot complete
this section it may bring into question whether you are able to
manage a grant properly.
Your finance worker, accountant/auditor, council for voluntary
service or other support agency should be able to help. The boxes
on our application form are designed to reflect the same categories
as the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) requirements set
out in the Charities Act. So if your accounts meet the SORP
requirements, it should not be too difficult. Remember, the totals
for assets and reserves should always be the same as they are two
ways of showing the same money (assets are the funds you have and
the reserves show what they are for). You should also double-check
that all the totals add up and that the deficit/surplus is
correct.
Do you visit projects?
Yes, one of the Trust's Grants Officers may visit an
organisation as part of the assessment process. If you receive a
visit you should make sure that someone is available to answer any
financial, organisational or governance questions that the Officer
may have, as well as whoever will be in charge of managing the
proposed project.
What happens if my application is successful?
All applicants are advised in writing of the Trustees' decision
on their application within a few days of the relevant Grants
Committee meeting. If the application is successful, the letter
will be accompanied by a copy of the Trust's standard Terms and
Conditions, which must be signed by the organisation's Chair or
Treasurer and returned promptly. This does not constitute a
request for payment.
The organisation should write to the Trust when it is ready to
start using the grant - this letter should be signed by whoever
signed the Terms and Conditions. Payments are made by bank transfer
and take a couple of weeks from receipt of request, providing any
or all relevant conditions have been met. Further details can be
found in the
Payments section of this website.
We will have to close next month if we cannot get any more
money. Can you help?
It is highly unlikely because our assessment process takes up to
four months, in order to carry out all the checks we require. We do
not provide deficit or retrospective funding or make grants to
solve the sort of crisis which results from poor financial
planning.
The Trust recognises, of course, in this difficult economic
climate that many third sector organisations are facing cuts in
funding and are having to make difficult decisions. We will not,
though, provide “bail out” funding but are willing to talk to you
about the issues you are facing.
We have a good project which meets your funding criteria and
current funding for it is about to expire. Can you help?
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Possibly. We often make grants to extend good work on the expiry
of time-limited funding from another charitable trust or other
source where the work meets our priorities. Again, remember when
you plan your application that we take about four months to advise
you of a decision. We do not usually pick up cuts from statutory
funding bodies and so you must show that the work in question was
funded on a time-limited basis. You will also need to clearly
demonstrate where future funds might come from.
Do you consider consortium bids?
Yes. If this is the case, you must select one organisation to be
the actual applicant on behalf of the consortium, and the
financial/organisational information must be that of the applicant
charity. Any grant will legally be the responsibility of the
trustees of that charity. You must also give a clear account of why
a consortium is the best approach and how it will steer the
work.
A consortium must be a minimum of three organisations although
often, more partners might strengthen the case. Being the lead in a
consortium bid will not affect the organisation's own funding
relationship with the Trust and they will still be able to hold a
grant in their own right.
We wish to apply for the capital cost of making our building
more accessible. Do we need to have an independent access
audit?
Yes and we will make grants of up to £5,000 towards the costs of
an independent access audit, disability equalities training and
related consultancy, where an organisation could not be expected to
fund these costs itself.
If you are considering making access improvements to your
building, we strongly recommend that you contact the Access and
Sustainability Adviser we fund at the
Centre for Accessible
Environments, telephone 020 7840 0125 or email
asas@cae.org.uk.
You are also recommended to consult our report
Opening Doors Across London available from the publications
section of this website.
What do you mean by 'Taking steps to reduce your carbon
footprint'?
Your carbon footprint is one measure of the impact your
organisation has on our environment and climate, through releasing
CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Most of your
activities contribute to this - through energy used for heating,
lighting, equipment and travel. Your footprint also includes the
energy used through the things you buy from others, and the waste
you generate.
If you have not yet taken steps to reduce your carbon footprint,
this will not count against you in the assessment of your
application. However, as part of our contribution to accelerating
the shift to a low carbon economy, we do encourage all our grant
recipients to adopt better environmental practice. Many such
changes are simple and can save your organisation money, as well as
helping to conserve our environmental framework and resources. See
also our programme of Eco-Audits called ‘
Greening the Third Sector’.
